In a valve known from DE 10 2005 060 217 B4, a circuit board is arranged inside the housing with which the ends of the wire-shaped SMA element (which activates a valve element designed as tappet) are electrically and mechanically connected. In one of its ends, the tappet has been guided into an opening of the circuit board in the direction of its longitudinal extension. Owing to the space needed by the circuit board, the valve housing is correspondingly voluminous, which is a disadvantage when the valve is assembled in a tight space. For more complex control tasks, numerous valves are generally required, in which case the valves—put together as valve arrangements or valve groups—are mounted onto a control board, thus increasing the assembly space for a valve group on the one hand but the mechanical and electrical connection of the valves to the control board involves, on the other hand, a relatively significant mounting effort.